Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus belonged to the family of the Scipions, connects people Cornelia. He is the uncle of Scipion the African ( Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus ) and is Consul in 222,

To the beginning of the Second Punic War, it was sent in Spain in 218 with his/her brother Publius Cornelius Scipio, consul the same year, with the head of two armies. The rising of the king of the Massaessyles of Numidie, Syphax, against Carthage (215 - 212), retaining the punic armies in Africa, made it possible to the Romans to extend their conquests to the south of the Ebre.

But when Syphax had made the peace with Carthage (212), the two Roman armies, which had already penetrated in Andalusia, underwent a disaster separately, where their chiefs perished (211) in front of higher troops of number, ordered by Magon and Hasdrubal, brothers of Hannibal.